zalea

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic. Coromines and Pascual say it is a borrowing of a "vulgar" (or spoken) Arabic term سَليخَة (salīḵa). First attested in the early 17th century in Don Quixote.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /θaˈlea/ [θaˈle.a]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /saˈlea/ [saˈle.a]
• Rhymes: -ea
• Syllabification: za‧le‧a

Noun

zalea f (plural zaleas)

1. sheepskin

Further reading

• “zalea”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
• Joan Coromines, José A. Pascual (1991) “zalea”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (in Spanish), volumes VI (Y–Z), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 811